The state of water resources in major Mediterranean islands

This work analyses the state of water resources in six Mediterranean islands: Corsica, Crete, Cyprus, Mallorca, Malta and Sicily. The analysis is focused on the prevailing social, economic and hydroclimatological characteristics of these islands in order to identify the main common features affecting water availability, demand and use. A detailed analysis of the state of water resources in all the considered islands has been carried out. A background of current conditions relating to freshwater availability, quality and use has been established. Different strategies to face water scarcity and enhance water quality in theislands have been assessed in a context of climate change which is a common threat. The identification of similar problems for all the islands highlights the importance of strengthening inter-islands co-operation in the field of sustainable water resources management.     

Wave‐equation migration with dithered plane waves

Wave‐equation based shot‐record migration provides accurate images but is computationally expensive because every shot must be migrated separately. Shot‐encoding migration, such as random shot‐encoding or plane‐wave migration, aims to reduce the computational cost of the imaging process by combining the original data into synthesized common‐source gathers. Random shot‐encoding migration and plane‐wave migration have different and complementary features: the first recovers the full spatial bandwidth of the image but introduces strong artefacts, which are due to the interference between the different shot wavefields; the second provides an image with limited spatial detail but is free of crosstalk noise. We design a hybrid scheme that combines linear and random shot‐encoding in order to limit the drawbacks and merge the advantages of these two techniques. We advocate mixed shot‐encoding migration through dithering of plane waves. This approach reduces the crosstalk noise relative to random shot‐encoding migration and increases the spatial bandwidth relative to conventional plane‐wave migration when the take‐off angle is limited to reduce the duration of the plane‐wave gather. In turn, this decreases the migration cost. Migration with dithered plane waves operates as a hybrid encoding scheme in‐between the end members represented by plane‐wave migration and random shot‐encoding. Migration with dithered plane waves has several advantages: every synthesized common‐source gather images in a larger aperture, the crosstalk noise is limited and higher spatial resolution is achievable compared to shot‐record migration, random shot‐encoding and linear shot‐encoding, respectively. Computational cost is also reduced relative to both random and linear shot‐encoding migration since fewer synthesized common‐source gathers are necessary to obtain a high signal‐to‐noise ratio and high spatial resolution in the final image.     

Landslide distribution and size in response to Quaternary fault activity: the Peloritani Range,NE Sicily,Italy

Landslides contribute to dismantle active mountain ranges and faults control the location of landslides. Yet, evidence of the long‐term, regional dependency of landslides on active faults is limited. Previous studies focused on the transient effects of earthquakes on slope stability in compressive and transcurrent regimes. Here we show that in the Peloritani range, NE Sicily, Italy, one of the fastest uplifting areas in the Mediterranean, a clear geographical association exists between large bedrock landslides and active normal faults of the Messina Straits graben. By interpreting aerial photographs, we mapped 1590 landslides and sackungs and 626 fault elements and their facets in a 300 km² area in the eastern part of the range. We used the new landslide and fault information, in combination with prior geological and seismic information, to investigate the association between bedrock landslides and faults. We find that the distribution and abundance of landslides is related to the presence of large active normal faults, and matches the pattern of the local historical seismicity. Landslide material is more abundant along the East Peloritani Fault System where the long‐term activity of the faults, measured by the average yearly geological moment rate, is larger than in the West Peloritani Fault System where landslides are less abundant. Along the fault systems landslide material concentrates where the cumulated fault throws are largest. We conclude that large landslides and their cumulated volume are sensitive to local rates of tectonic deformation, and discriminate the deformation of the single fault segments that dissect the Peloritani range. Our findings are a direct test of landscape evolution models that predict higher rates of landslide activity near active faults. Our work opens up the possibility of exploiting accurate landslide and fault maps, in combination with geological and seismic information, to characterize the long‐term seismic history of poorly instrumented active regions. © 2015 The Authors Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

Metrics for quantifying anthropogenic impacts on geomorphology: road networks

This work tests the capability of a recently published topographic index, the Slope Local Length of Auto‐correlation (SLLAC), to portrait and delineate anthropogenic geomorphologies. The patterns of the anthropogenic pressure are defined considering the road network density and the Urban Complexity Index (UCI). First, the research investigates the changes in the SLLAC in two derived parameters (average SLLAC and the SLLAC surface peak curvature – Spc – per km²) connected to the increasing of the anthropogenic structures. Next, natural and anthropogenic landscapes are clustered and classified. The results show that there is a direct correlation between the road network density and the UCI, and the mean SLLAC per km². However, the Spc is inversely correlated with the anthropogenic pressure (network density and urban complexity). This shows that the surface morphology (slope) of regions presenting anthropogenic structures tends to be well organized (low Spc) and, in general, self‐similar at a long distance (higher average SLLAC). The results of the clustering approach show that the procedure can correctly depict anthropogenic landscapes having a road network density greater than about 3 km/km², also in areas covered by vegetation. This latter result is promising for the use of such a procedure in regions that cannot be seen directly from orthophotos or satellite images. The proposed method can actively capture the alteration produced by road networks on surface morphology identifying different signatures of urban development: exploration and densification networks that are responsible for increasing the local density of the network and expanding the network into new areas, respectively. The effects of this alteration on surface processes could be significant for future research, creating new questions about differences due to human or landscape forcing on Earth surface processes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonstationary modeling of a long record of rainfall and temperature over Rome

A long record (1862–2004) of seasonal rainfall and temperature from the Rome observatory of Collegio Romano are modeled in a nonstationary framework by means of the Generalized Additive Models in Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS). Modeling analyses are used to characterize nonstationarities in rainfall and related climate variables. It is shown that the GAMLSS models are able to represent the magnitude and spread in the seasonal time series with parameters which are a smooth function of time. Covariate analyses highlight the role of seasonal and interannual variability of large-scale climate forcing, as reflected in three teleconnection indexes (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, and Mediterranean Index), for modeling seasonal rainfall and temperature over Rome. In particular, the North Atlantic Oscillation is a significant predictor during the winter, while the Mediterranean Index is a significant predictor for almost all seasons.     

Ecotoxicological and human health risk in a petrochemical district of southern Italy

An ecotoxicological investigation has been carried in the petrochemical district of Priolo (Sicily, Italy), one of the largest in Europe. Results indicated a severe mercury contamination in sediments sampled near a chloro-alkali plant. A clear bioavailability of this element was demonstrated in mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis (both native and translocated) and the benthic fish Mullus barbatus, which also exhibited marked genotoxic damages. The elevated mercury concentrations in marine organisms are a serious concern for human health; according to the national average fish consumption, the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of Hg would be easily exceeded by at least 4 to 12 fold. Such toxicological risk is of particular importance for pregnant women, being possibly involved in the elevated frequency of neonatal malformations.     

Silicate-carbonate-salt liquid immiscibility and origin of the sodalite-haüyne rocks: study of melt inclusions in olivine foidite from Vulture volcano, S. Italy

Melt inclusions in clinopyroxenes of olivine foidite bombs from Serra di Constantinopoli pyroclastic flows of the Vulture volcano (Southern Italy) were studied in detail. The rocks contain abundant zoned phenocrysts and xenocrysts of clinopyroxene, scarce grains of olivine, leucite, haüyne, glass with microlites of plagioclase and K-feldspar. The composition of clinopyroxene in xenocrysts (Cpx I), cores (Cpx II), and in rims (Cpx III) of phenocrysts differs in the content of Mg, Fe, Ti, and Al. All clinopyroxenes contain two types of primary inclusion-pure silicate and of silicate-carbonate-salt composition. This fact suggests that the phenomena of silicate-carbonate immiscibility took place prior to crystallization of clinopyroxene. Homogenization of pure silicate inclusions proceeded at 1 225 – 1 190°C. The composition of conserved melts corresponded to that of olivine foidite in Cpx I, to tephrite-phonolite in Cpx II, and phonolite-nepheline trachyte in Cpx III. The amount of water in them was no more than 0.9 wt.%. Silicate-carbonate inclusions decrepitated on heating. Salt globules contained salts of alkali-sulphate, alkali-carbonate, and Ca-carbonate composition somewhat enriched in Ba and Sr. This composition is typical of carbonatite melts when decomposed into immiscible fractions. The formation of sodalite-haüyne rocks from Vulture is related to the presence of carbonate-salt melts in magma chamber. The melts conserved in clinopyroxenes were enriched in incompatible elements, especially in Cpx III. High ratios of La, Nb, and Ta in melts on crystallization of Cpx I and Cpx II suggest the influence of a carbonatite melt as carbonatites have extremely high La/Nb and Nb/Ta and this is confirmed by the appearance of carbonatite melts in magma chamber. Some anomalies in the concentrations and relatives values of Eu and especially Ga seems typical of Italian carbonatite related melts. The mantle source for initial melts was, most likely, rather uniform, undepleted and was characterized by a low degree of melting and probable presence of garnet in restite.     

A finite element method for localized erosion in porous media with applications to backward piping in levees

This paper presents a computational method able to effectively model both the simultaneous processes typically observed in backward erosion piping, ie, the pipe tip propagation and the conduit cross-section enlargement. The numerical method is based on the novel formulation of a problem of localized erosion along a line propagating in a multidimensional porous medium. In this line, a conduit with evolving transverse size is embedded, which conveys a multiphase flow. The two systems, porous medium and pipe, are bridged by exchange terms of multiphase fluid mass and by a shared fluid pressure field. On the contrary, different fields are considered to describe flows, which are assumed as Darcian in the porous medium and turbulent in the conduit. These two flows drive pipe propagation and enlargement, respectively, as modeled by means of proper erosion kinetic laws. The corresponding numerical formulation is based on the combination between one- and multidimensional finite elements, to model the erosion conduit and the porous medium, respectively. Several simulations are proposed to demonstrate the ability of the proposed approach in reproducing available experimental data of real-scale tests on levees. Our results point out the crucial role played by the combined influence of pipe propagation and enlargement, as well as of three-dimensional (3D) effects. We also assess the mesh independence of the proposed numerical solution, particularly as concerns the calculated pipe propagation history.